Dates: January 30 - March 3, 2006
Exhibition Hours: M - F, 9am – 5pm and S&S 1 – 4pm
Reception: Wednesday. February 15, 2006 from 5 – 6pm.
The Cummings Arts Center at Connecticut College is pleased to present The Game of Life, an exhibition of paintings by British artist Graham Day. Sixteen of the artist’s mixed media paintings will be on display in Gallery 66.
Graham Day’s paintings are small, complex works that invite contemplation. Inspired by the form of old board games, Graham Day has created an intriguing group of paintings that display a common sequential ordering system at work. The artist is also intrigued by games and their ability to reflect many human conditions. Further referencing game boards his paintings are mounted on boards that contain folds with cotton tapes that suggest that the pieces are portable and for temporary use.
"Games reveal models which encourage particular psychological states or reenact rituals which have their origins in the species' ancestry ...they duplicate almost every human condition, aspiration and social structure." *
The paintings on display at Gallery 66 form a group of images that have stuck in my mind's eye since first encountering them --- both literally seeing them in other forms, some of them as long as 40 years or imagined recently. They all share a common characteristic of displaying a sequential ordering principle at work. The form of the majority of the pictures derives from the games board, now almost obsolete apart from chess. The addition of the cotton tapes and central fold in the board suggests that the pictures are potable and for temporary use like a chart; or in Far Eastern scrolls, displayed on occasion and stored away closed when not in use.
A recurring theme in my work is the utilizing and adapting of popular imagery to try and make a serious, worthwhile point. The purpose of the game board pictures is to encourage contemplation rather than competition with any prize being the achievement of the viewer's own personal goal.
Graham Day
London, October 2005
* p14 Diagram, K.Alban & J.Miall Smith 1977
Born in London in 1946, Day studied at the Bath Academy of Art and The Slade School of Fine Art, London. He has lectured in fine art since 1973. Recent one-person exhibitions were held in London, Beirut, and Los Angeles. Examples of Day’s work are in the collections of the British Library, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the World Bank in Washington DC; and the National Museums of Scotland.
A reception in the gallery of the Cummings Arts Center will be held for The Game of Life on Wednesday February 15 from 5 - 6pm. The event is free and open to the public.
Exhibition hours are M - F, 9 - 5pm, and Sat & Sun, 1 - 4pm
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